Customer Reviews

A Short History of the Civil War

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This is a nice introduction to Civil War history. The author does not take sides which is refreshing since a bias is often evident in Civil war books. Between narratives of movements and battles are several short essays about the cause of the war, the economies of the respective nations, and analysis of military doctrine of the period.

The author does a bit of analysis of the key characters and its interesting to see a foreigner's take on the war (Stokesbury is Canadian). One criticism is that the battle descriptions are so short that it is easy to get confused about what took place in the action, and whole complex campaigns can be glossed over. To be fair, this is difficult to avoid in a "short" history of such a protracted war.

The writing is good and some of it stands out (the last paragraph of the book gave me goosebumps). This is a good primer on the Civil war and is recommended.

I bought this book for a nice summary, but not too detailed summary of the Civil War....and thats exactly what I got. Professor Stokesbury writes this wonderful, well researched book on one the most key points in our history. After reading this book I have a new outlook on how close we were to becoming two nations. Each key battle is cleary and methodically discussed, along with some of the stuff outside the battlelines. He is very objective, not favoring either side, and explains the causes of the start and the final collapse of the Confederacy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick, easy-read summary of the Civil War, or to a history buff.

James L. Stokesbury was a professor of history at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He has written numerous short histories of some of the most important wars of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

In this book on the Civil War, Stokesbury takes a vast amount of information (over 50,000 books have been published on the subject) and condenses it into a slim book of just over 300 pages. He covers the broad horizon of this period in a meaningful and entertaining way. Of course, sacrifices must be made. Some of the battle narratives are confusing in their shortened form, but the ebb and flow of the campaigns are accurately portrayed.

Stokesbury's account is remarkably objective generally; however, every Civil War buff has his own opinions about the best and worst of the generals. Stokesbury makes no attempt to hide his feelings about his candidates for the worst.

Many of the trivial details a typical soldier's life are incorporated in the narrative. Also covered are some of the economic, social, and political events which shaped the course of the war.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about this pivotal point in our history but doesn't have the time to commit to some of the larger tomes.

There are a number of one volume histories dealing with the American Civil War, but this is one of the best I've read. It consists of about 330 pages of narrative published in a very readable text design. Within this limited amount of space the author does an admirable job of covering such a sprawling topic. Descriptions of the major military campaigns are balanced with sections explaining changes that occurred in the political, economic, and social landscape. The often neglected war in the western portion of the Confederacy is well-covered. Although the historical personages who cross this bloody stage must be rendered in brief strokes, they are handled deftly enough so one gets some feeling for their characters and their roles. Author James L. Stokesbury dispenses personal observations that are at some points droll and at others fully reflective of the tragedy of the war. Certainly there are aspects of mid-19th Century American life not given full scrutiny, including slavery itself. But this is, after all, a self-described short history. I would strongly recommend "A Short History of the Civil War" as an introductory text for casual readers and students. I'd further suggest that even more serious minded researchers can benefit from reading what I find to be a model of concise, balanced, yet compelling historical narrative.

I blundered on this book in the stacks at the local library. After an introduction to the civil war via the Shaara novels, my wife and I have been reading some histories of specific battles and some biographies of individual leaders. We felt the need for a general survey of the war to tie it all together, but we did not want to devote the time to a comprehensive history. This book filled the bill perfectly.

Stokesbury has an extremely fluid and readable prose style that is simply a joy to read. I assume that his facts are reasonably accurate. To me, he seems to devote just the right amount of attention to the various battles, individuals, issues, etc., though he leaves enough unsaid to stimulate further reading. He certainly does have his opinions, which he expresses sometimes with a delightful sarcasm. And he imparts some of the flavor of what it must have felt like to fight or have a loved one fighting in this war, which literally tore America apart in more ways than one. Tears came to my eyes as I read the details of the surrender at Appomattox, a testament both to the extreme emotions of the war, even after more than a century, and to Stokesbury's narrative powers.

The only real weak point of the book for me was the maps, which are not cited in the text and do little to assist the reader in visualizing troop deployments, battle maneuvers, etc.